This invention relates generally to drawing and ironing machines and more particularly to a positive cup feeding mechanism for taking cups from a continuous supply and locating them in a particular position with respect to the drawing and ironing machine.
In recent years, a two-piece container has received a remarkable degree of commercial acceptance. A two-piece container consists of an integral bottom wall and sidewall of a container which has an end attached thereto to form the finished container. In the formation of such containers, it has been customary to take a circular blank of stock material that is first deformed into a shallow cup. This cup is the placed into a drawing and ironing machine which consist of a plurality of axially spaced rings defining an elongated opening and a ram or punch which cooperates with the ring to deform the cup into a container having a genrally cylindrical sidewall and a bottom wall of a particular configuration.
One type of machine that has found commercial acceptance for producing a container from a cup is marketed by Ragsdale Bros., Inc. of Englewood, Colorado under Model No. CR-24 or CR-265. These body makers or drawing and ironing presses are what are generally referred to as horizontal positive can wall drawing and ironing presses.
The Ragsdale presses generally incorporate what is known as a "gravity-feed" for the cups to the opening for the press. Difficulties have been encountered in such a "gravity-feed" arrangement in that it is difficult to accurately align the cups between the punch and the ironing rings. Furthermore, gravity feeding has an inherent drawback in that the speed of operation is of necessity limited to a large measure by the speed at which the cups can be gravity fed to the drawing and ironing machine.